Video-heavy crashes

[hypocrisyofcake]

Hello all, I'd be greatly appreciative of some assistance...

My computer has gotten into the habit of when I'm running applications that toll heavily on the video card, it shuts down completely without warning. When I'm rendering edited video in Sony Vegas 8.0, dealing with large files in Photoshop CS4, playing a graphic-heavy game like GTA:SA, or even if I have a couple browser tabs open with Flash content in them (which is odd, because as I understand it, in-browser Flash doesn't call on the video card), it turns off.

The reason I suspect the video card or drivers is that those are the only instances when I have restarts, and only once I got a blue screen error message mentioning the video driver. I'm foolish and didn't make note of the exact error, and I only ran across it once.

To make sure my bases are covered, recently I replaced the video card (GeForce 8800GTS 320mb from a 6600GT 128mb), uninstalling and then reinstalling the drivers when doing so; all the heatsinks and fans are clear of debris; I replaced the power supply, upping the wattage; the memory's been replaced recently; all virus scans end up clean; and I reformatted the main drive and reinstalled everything. Still the problems continue. Short of more drastic measures, I'm a little stumped.

Specs:
XP Home Edition, SP3
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20 GHz
3.26 GHz 2.00 GB of RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8800GTS, 320 mb

Any help or point in the right direction would be really wonderful. Thanks!

 

[almcneil]

Can your check the Windows error logs and post back please.

You've done just about everything I would suggest. Let's hope the logs tell us something.

-- Andy

 

[nismo91]

i get a similar situation before, solved by re-applying thermal paste.
another situation of mine, ends up getting a new mobo.

please check back the mobo error log and windows minidump.

 

[Ruben]

I would start by making sure there is good airflow in the PC case, maybe even open it, it might help.

 

[Punkid]

yes Ruben is right, pentium 4 processors heat up and they heat up pretty fast...check the tempratures using an application like speedfan

 

[hypocrisyofcake]

Allo, thank you so much for writing back. I've done a few things. The original thermal grease on the (3 year old) processor had dried and begun flaking away, so I replaced that. The computer's running without the case on and I've got a CPU temperature monitor running, saying the core's at 61C, which from what I can gather is hotter than necessary.

There was nothing in the minidump folder, which was strange. I have it set up to write a dump when there's a system failure.

The error log for each time the computer restarts comes up with the same error message:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 51
Date: 9/22/2009
Time: 3:53:04 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SDH
Description:
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk3\D during a paging operation.

Data:
0000: 00680003 00b60001 00000000 80040033
0010: 0000012d 00000000 00000000 00000000
0020: 59706600 0000000a 0097e633 00000000
0030: ffffffff 00000003 84000040 00000002
0040: 120a2000 40000342 00001000 0000003c
0050: 00000000 89adab28 00000000 88763768
0060: 00000000 052cb833 2c050028 000033b8
0070: 00000008 00000000 00020070 0b000000
0080: 00000000 00000204 00000000 00000000

 

[almcneil]

Allo, thank you so much for writing back. I've done a few things. The original thermal grease on the (3 year old) processor had dried and begun flaking away, so I replaced that. The computer's running without the case on and I've got a CPU temperature monitor running, saying the core's at 61C, which from what I can gather is hotter than necessary.

There's a problem here and I think it's the temp sensor. Or you haven't attached the heat sink properly.

You're CPU simply can't be running at 61C. You've replaced the thermal paste and are running the system with the case open. If the heat sink is working (make sure it's it touching the processor) then the CPU should be running somewhere between 30C to 50C (full load) The only explanation for the unually high temp would be a faulty temp sensor. This in turn reports an incorrectly high CPU temp so the BIOS shuts down the system.

Unfortuantely, you cannot replace the temp sensor alone. You simply have to replace the MoBo. I'd take it to the local computer store and see if they can test the temp sensor or verify that the temp it's reporting is incorrect.

-- Andy